Shikamaru's Cat
by Soorim
Summary: The stray cats who lurk around Konoha could tell you so much about the village and it's people. Shikamaru could tell you so much about Konoha... ( Implied: Iruka Kakashi, Ino Sasuke, SakuraSasuke (InoSakura?, Neij Hinata?) NarutoSakura, Shikamaru Naruto?)


Shikamaru's Cat

By MaroonSorrow

Pairings: Iruka/ Kakashi, Ino/ Sasuke, Sakura/Sasuke (Ino/Sakura, Neij/ Hinata?) Naruto/Sakura, Shikamaru/ Naruto? Most of these are just implied though...

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Flame me and get nine years bad luck.

So many unseen connections lie under the surface of Konoha. Some are obvious and some are not, but to see all of them, one needs emotional detachment. The stray cats who lurk all around Konoha could tell you this and so much more... Staring up at clouds and watching people from a distance, Shikamaru could tell you this and so much more...

Wake up. Stretch. Look disinterestedly around you. Apparently, you're still alive. Get up. Sneak out through a window before someone catches you.

Tiredly, a cat leaves it's sleeping place and lazily meanders up a rooftop, avoiding any people.

Look around. Iruka is faithfully watering his plants. He smells like sadness, a soft smile on his face as he contemplates his flowers. When the mail comes, he brightens a little though, eyes lighting up to find a long awaited letter. It smells like dogs, just a little. Even Iruka notices it. It has the scent of the silver haired Jounin who sometimes watches Iruka from a distance. Iruka never notices. Kakashi notices Iruka's smile though. He notices everything, even the cat who disdainfully glares at him and then leaves, twitching its tail.

Next, the cat heads for a sunny windowsill outside of Ino's room, hoping for charities.

A few minutes later, Ino wakes up and bounces out of bed to fix her hair. She smiles at her reflection, skillfully applying her usual makeup. Mascara, eyeshadow, lip gloss. She doesn't even notice the silhouette of the cat in the window. " Today- is the day! That I'm going to give Sasuke my chocolate and force him to recognize his feelings for me!" Ino hums before dashing off to her kitchen. Disgruntled, the cat moves on, reflecting on the days when the pink- fur girl and Ino would huddle together and giggle and pet the cat. Back then, the mischievous duo loved to help around the neighborhood, baking cookies and rescuing strays. It's been quite a while since then. But the cat never gives up on hoping that someday they'll go back to being the people who gave a stray handouts.

A hungry cat heads wistfully to its only assured meal of the day.

Ordinarily, Naruto would be sleeping still. However, today his radio is emitting some sappy love song Naru is dashing around his kitchen. From the window, the cat notes that Naruto scurries rather like a mouse when he cooks. Naruto dashes from the stove, which was emitting smoke, to the stove, on which some unknown substance is bubbling. " Ack! I burned Sasu- _Sakura's _chocolate!" he exclaims, turning off the stove and oven. " I can't give hi- her this!" Naruto sighs, noticing the cat. " Do you want some chocolate?" he asks hopefully. The cat gives him a disdainful glare. "I guess not..." laughs Naruto. He gives the cat a small piece of egg from last nights ramen and goes back to cooking.

Twitching at the oddness of humans, the cat removes it's regal presence from Naru's apartment...because Naruto is dancing while he cooks. The cat barely avoids getting stepped on.

Apparently, the stray will have to catch her food today. She heads for the Uchiha mansion. When she gets there, she's depressed to find that there's a crowd of fangirls at the gate, loudly struggling and trying to climb the gate. As soon as one gets near the top, one of the others pulls her down. Sakura and Ino are, of course, nearest to the top. It looks like they're going to start using jutsu's on each other soon the cat doesn't want to be there when that happens. So she makes her way to the back entrance with the sinking feeling that all the mice are in hiding because of the hubbub at the front gate.

Upon sneaking in, the cat is confronted with a site both frightening odd. The much lauded Uchiha heir, in the frilly apron he was wearing, is holding a rather large kitchen knife, which he is pointing at the frightened cat. They stare at each other for a moment before Sasuke leaps back and preforms the " Reverse no jutsu!" When the cat doesn't immediately turn into a rabid fangirl, Sasuke relaxes, putting down the knife. " I guess you really are a cat- I thought-" he glances at the gate " that you were on of THEM." Sasuke goes off to get a piece of ham for the cat. " After all, you did show me a place I need to patch up. " He goes off to find a piece of wood and some nails. Upon following him through the house, the cat notices some chocolate cooling on the table. It leaps up to investigate, but Sasuke comes back before the chocolate can be eaten by the curious cat. ' I guess I need to give you more ham...'

A little while later, a well fed cat leaves Sasuke to his cooking, gate watching and training.

The kitty staggers to the nearest safe place, a windowbox of the main hyuga household and goes to sleep. When Hinata comes in a little while later, she chiefly notices two things: choco # 1 choco # 2." But w-who could've sent me this? " she exclaims. Despite the fact that she's all alone, she still blushes violently. With trembling hands she opens the first chocolate, perfectly wrapped with a little white note enclosed. Hinata eagerly folds open the note, eyes wide open in surprise at the handwriting there. True, It's somewhat disguised, but Hinata can still recognize it. " Why..?" she murmurs, examining the note written on neat Branch House stationary. After quietly setting aside the note, she picks up her second chocolate and opens it, a hopeful smile on her face. The cat wakes up at the sound of Hinata laughing and promptly leaves.

She wanders into the park by the Haruno household where Sakura is sitting depressed on a bench.

'Pink- fur looks like she got into a cat fight...' observes the stray. She makes sure Sakura doesn't see her, because angry people tend to kick cats. Sakura is almost crying. Ino is in the hospital and Sakura doesn't want to go home and find a cake from Lee and a choco from Naruto. Sakura doesn't want to find another disappointment...so she sits in the park, her wounds aching. Tomorrow Kakashi will give her strange looks, Naruto will ask nonchalantly " What happened, Sakura?" and Sasuke will be... Sasuke. Sakura keeps seeing Ino decked out, her proud blond hair streaked an ugly red color with dried blood eyes slightly unfocused. She hadn't meant to repel that attack in that direction...Sakura tries not to sob. " But Sasuke... He's worth it.. He is.." Sakura trails off. The color of the ribbon wrapped around her Choco reminds her of Ino...

The stray wanders to find a place that's less noisy, avoiding Lee's house on her way to the other end of town. Normally Lee is kind to animals, but today weird noises are coming from his house. The cat would've sighed if she could've. Iruka and Kakashi are eating dinner together in the same café where Neij pretends that he's not waiting for anyone. Up in the Uchiha mansion, some anonymous chocolate that will puzzle Sasuke is being placed on his doorstep... and chocolate is being placed reluctantly on Naruto's windowsill. Kiba, who doesn't like chocolate, is playing video games with Shino, who didn't bother to cook chocolate.

She slowly makes her way up a small hill to a place where a brown haired boy sits, watching clouds. She very much approves of such a pastime...

Shikamaru can see most of Konoha from this point. He can imagine the soft glow in Hinata's eyes and he's pretty sure that several fangirls are in the hospital right now. Only on days like this does Shikamaru pity Sasuke. Only on days like this does he feel the faintest stirring of envy. Shikamaru knew almost perfectly what would happen today. It hurts. He sighs, glancing at the clouds. He sees a fox, a heart, and a cat.

: Crushes, clouds andcats:

The end?

This was written for Valentines Day, but I guess I'm a little late...While this isn't my best work, I rather like the idea of Sasuke in an apron, don't you? And Naru-kun dancing! The title might not make much sense but I was wondering what the Art of the Familiar spirit could be used for... Perhaps Shikamaru could use it ( his " familiar spirit") to watch people? On the other hand I'm sure Shika could figure out everything in this story. What kind of familiar spirit would he have...? Perhaps the story wasn't so much about Shikamaru's cat as it was about a cat Shikamaru. Shikamaru says review!


End file.
